Unit Overview

This unit explores the concept of how members of the Church learn to live as disciples of Jesus. It introduces Jesus’ New Commandment to love others as Jesus loved us. The unit introduces Saints as ordinary people who reflected God’s goodness to the world and brought God’s love to others. Students will focus on the lives and challenges of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop and St Patrick. Students will explore how their parish and school community honours and celebrates the Saints. Students will reflect on how they can use their gifts to bring God’s goodness and love to others.

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Enduring Understanding

The Saints show us how to be loving disciples of Jesus who reflect God’s goodness to others.

Objectives

A student will

value and appreciate their personal responsibility for moral decision-making; recognise that moral decision-making can be both complex and demanding; accept the need to work with compassion for justice in the world; believe in their own potential to effect change
develop an understanding of Catholic moral teaching, its relationship to moral issues and place in personal decision-making, including its call to work for justice in the world
research into and reflect on Catholic moral teaching; develop the ability to make responsible moral decisions; apply the principles of justice and compassion in their lives

Outcomes

A student

recognises disciples as followers of Jesus who try to live good and holy lives. (RECVE2)
describes the Saints as people who reflect God’s goodness and love. (RECKE2)
identifies how parish and school communities honour and celebrate the Saints. (RECSE2)

Essential Questions

How do members of the Church learn to live as followers of Jesus?
How do the Saints reflect God’s goodness and live as followers of Jesus?
How does our parish and school community honour and celebrate the Saints?

Learning Focus, Statements of Learning & Course Content

Students recognise that the Saints reflect God’s goodness by

- identifying people who have followed God’s call to live as disciples.
- Read KWL Book 2 Chapter 4 Saints p40-44 and identify how the Saints lived their lives as disciples
- Identify that Saints reflect God’s goodness and use their gifts from God to help others.
- Reflect on the Saints and how we pray through their intercession to help us in our lives.
- Pray the Litany in KWL Book 2 Chapter 4 Prayer p45.
- exploring Saints of the Catholic Church.
- Explore St Mary of the Cross MacKillop (Storytelling approach).
- Explore the life of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, Australia’s first saint, and recognise how she lived her life as a follower of Jesus.
- Read KWL Book 2 Chapter 5 St Patrick p46-52 and identify his qualities and the challenges St Patrick experienced as a follower of Jesus.
- Read KWL Book 2 Chapter 5 Prayer p53 and explore the St Patrick’s Breastplate.
- Investigate a known saint and identify the qualities and challenges they experienced as a follower of Jesus.

Students deepen their understanding that as members of the Church we learn to live as followers of Jesus by

- exploring ways that Jesus showed care.
- Read KWL Big Book, Jesus Cares for People, Feeding the Five Thousand and describe how Jesus cared for those in need.
- Explore John 2:1-12 The Wedding Feast at Cana (Storytelling approach).
- Identify how Mary and the disciples had faith in Jesus and how as Jesus’ followers we too can trust his power to help us in times of need.
- exploring Jesus’ commandment of love.
- Explore John 13:34-35 The New Commandment and explore what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.
- Explore Jesus’ new commandment of love and reflect on ways we can follow Jesus in our own lives.
- exploring ways to love and praise God as a community.
- Read KWL Book 2 Chapter 3 The Church is a Family p32-37 and recognise that:
  ○ Everyone who is baptised is part of God’s family, the Church.
  ○ The Church gathers to worship God at Mass.
  ○ We have different talents to share in God’s family, the Church.
  ○ The Church cares for one another.

Students deepen their understanding of how our parish and school honours and celebrates the Saints by

- exploring Saints important to our community.
- Explore the Saints important to your school and identify how this Saint reflected the goodness of God.
- Explore the parish church and identify artwork, stained glass and statues that honour and celebrate Saints.
- Identify days that celebrate and honour the Saints associated with the parish and school community.
- recognising ways that we can be like the Saints.
- Identify how we can be disciples of Jesus and live good and holy lives like the Saints.
- Celebrate a prayer service which gives thanks to God for the Saints who inspire and help us to live lives as followers of Jesus.

Compulsory Scripture

Unit Content 1:
Mark 6:30-44 Feeding the Five Thousand
John 2:1-12 The Wedding Feast at Cana
John 13:34-35 The New Commandment

Storytelling

Unit Content 1
John 2:1-12 The Wedding Feast at Cana

Unit Content 3
St Mary of the Cross MacKillop (storytelling)

Church Documents

Catechism of the Catholic Church

688 – The Church, a communion living in the faith of the apostles which she transmits, is the place where we know the Holy Spirit: … – in the witness of Saints through whom he manifests his holiness and continues the work of salvation

828 – By canonising some of the faithful, i.e. by solemnly proclaiming that they practised heroic virtue and lived in fidelity to God’s grace, the Church recognises the power of the Spirit of holiness within her and sustains the hope of believers by proposing the Saints to them as models and intercessors. “The Saints have always been the source and origin of renewal in the most difficult moments in the Church’s history”. Indeed, “holiness is the hidden source and infallible measure of her apostolic activity and missionary zeal”.

1970 – The Law of the Gospel requires us to make the decisive choice between “the two ways” and to put into practice the words of the Lord. It is summed up in the Golden Rule, “Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them; this is the law and the prophets.” The entire Law of the Gospel is contained in the “new commandment” of Jesus, to love one another as he has loved us.

2013 – “All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity.” All are called to holiness: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

2030 – It is in the Church, in communion with all the baptised, that the Christian fulfils his vocation. From the Church he receives the Word of God containing the teachings of the “law of Christ”. From the Church he receives the grace of the sacraments that sustains him on the “way”. From the Church he learns the example of holiness and recognises its model and source in the all-holy Virgin Mary; he discerns it in the authentic witness of those who live it; he discovers it in the spiritual tradition and long history of the Saints who have gone before him and whom the liturgy celebrates in the rhythms of the sanctoral cycle.

KWL

Unit Content 1
KWL Big Book, Jesus Cares for People, Feeding the Five Thousand
KWL Book 2 Chapter 3 The Church is a Family p32-37
Unit Content 2
KWL Book 2 Chapter 4 Saints p40-45
KWL Book 2 Chapter 4 Prayer p45
KWL Book 2 Chapter 5 St Patrick p46-53
KWL Book 2 Chapter 5 Prayer St Patrick’s Breastplate p53

Prayer

Prayers of Tradition
Litany in KWL Book 2 Chapter 4 Prayer p45
Praying with Scripture
John 13:34-35 The New Commandment
Prayer service which gives thanks to God for the Saints
Other Prayer Forms
KWL Book 2 Chapter 5 Prayer p53 St Patrick’s Breastplate

General Capabilities

Australian Curriculum
Cross Curriculum Priorities		The General Capabilities
	Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures		Critical and creative thinking
	Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia		Ethical understanding
	Sustainability		Information and communication technology capability
Other important learning identified by the NSW Educational Standards Authority (NESA):			Intercultural understanding
	Civics and citizenship		Literacy
	Difference and diversity		Numeracy
	Work and enterprise		Personal and social capability

E2 – Being Loving Disciples